The Marauders: Year One | #Wattys2016

Dirty Plays

Dirty Plays

Quidditch in the winter was James's least favorite part of being on the team. He decided this when he woke up and shivered as he put on his Quidditch robes, so cold he could scarcely do up the buttons. The window showed a grey and dismal day outside as the finest sleet clicked against the glass. He made sure he grabbed the heated gloves his Dad had given him out of his trunk and double padded the socks in his trainers. Lily was in the common room, already in her Quidditch robes and curled up in front of the early morning fire, reading a book. She looked up as James descended the stairs, biting the ends of his gloves as he tightened them 'round his wrist to keep them from falling off. Her broom leaned against the table. James leaned his alongside it and set himself down on the couch as she turned back to her reading.

Derek had demanded everyone be up early in the morning for the match, which would be against Slytherin, as he wanted to be sure they had plenty of time to talk over strategies in the locker rooms before taking the pitch. James looked up at the clock and wondered if maybe he and Lily were a little earlier than Derek had had in mind - seeing as neither Derek nor any of their other teammates were there just yet.

"Any sign of anyone else being awake up in the boys dorms?" Lily asked, looking up as she turned the page of the book she was reading.

"None that I heard," James answered.

Lily turned back to her book.

James studied her a moment. "So Remus told you... stuff, I heard," he said after a long moment.

She nodded without looking up.

"What do you think about it?" he asked.

Lily held up a finger, her lips forming around the words on the pages she was reading until she came to the end of a sentence, then she pressed one finger against the spot she'd left off at and looked at James. "What do I think about it? What do you mean by that?"

James shrugged, "I mean, surely you have some sort of thought or - or opinion on it, yeah?"

Lily frowned, thinking, and then replied, "I think I understand why Remus was sorted to Gryffindor instead of Ravenclaw." Her green eyes seemed even greener in the low lighting, if that were possible, dark like a forest, though, rather than their usual bottle color. She ran her fingers along the edges of the pages of her book thoughtfully.

"Yeah," James agreed, "I reckon it probably takes an awful lot of courage to be Remus Lupin." He nodded.

"How long have you known about it?" Lily asked.

"He told Sirius, Peter, and I last term. About a year now, I s'pose... Blimey, that was a quick year." He rubbed the back of his neck thoughtfully. "Sirius had figured it out and sort of... sort of confronted him about it."

Lily looked shocked.

"Yeah. Confronting a werewolf. Guess there's no question why Sirius was sorted Gryffindor, 'ey?" James chuckled. He smiled and Lily noticed for the first time that his smile was a bit crooked, one side of his mouth lifting a bit higher than the other, and a small wrinkle of a dimple in the lower side. His deep brown eyes reflected the fire a bit and for but a moment Lily could see why it was that Alice Bell had once called James Potter a looker. But then he added, "I'm not afraid of him, either, of course -- belonging in Gryffindor as much as either of them..." His tone carried that boisterous, egotistical over confidence that Lily so loathed.

He'd been surely about to go off on some long winded tirade about how brave he was, but luckily for Lily, James was interrupted by the sound of Frank Longbottom and Andrew Woodhouse coming down the stairs with their Quidditch robes on. Andrew carried his Keepers pads as well. The others followed along not much longer. All except Derek.